Latest Continental shelf Stories

Articles posted online 13–17 December 2012 New Geosphere articles include additions to several special issues "Results of IODP Exp313: The History and Impact of Sea-level Change Offshore New Jersey"; "The ANDRILL McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) and Southern McMurdo Sound (SMS) Drilling Projects"; "Exploring the Deep Sea and Beyond: Contributions to Marine Geology in Honor of William R. Normark"; and "CRevolution 2: Origin and Evolution of the Colorado River System II." Topics include: 1....

The terms “gas” and “sea” for many will invoke associations of reserves, business, and a lot of money. Whatever the association, most of the efforts in Israel’s energy field are being directed at gas buried deep under the Mediterranean seabed. Now a new geophysical study, the first of its kind in Israel, has uncovered a system of active gas springs in the Haifa Bay seabed, at relatively shallow depths, only a few dozen meters below the surface. The study, published in the journal...

REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Oct. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Energy Authority of Iceland (NEA), has today announced the Second Licensing Round for hydrocarbon exploration and production licenses on the Icelandic Continental Shelf. The offer will be open from October 3, 2011 until April 2, 2012. The blocks on offer in the Second Licensing Round are located in the Dreki Area, northeast of Iceland, from 67d 00'N to 68d 30'N and 11d 30'W to 6d 20'W. The area covers 42,700 square...

Marine scientists from five research agencies have pooled their skills and resources to compile a directory of life on Australia's continental shelf.They examined the shelf seascape during a three-year program of the Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities (CERF) Marine Biodiversity Hub.Hub director, Professor Nic Bax of CSIRO and the University of Tasmania, says the program developed and applied a consistent, national approach to biodiversity mapping."The program compiled existing...

A study led by Dr Stuart Painter of the National Oceanography Centre helps explain the formation of huge phytoplankton blooms off the southeast coast of South America during the austral summer (December-January). The region supports the highly productive Patagonian Shelf marine ecosystem, which includes a globally important fishery.Coccolithophores are key members of the marine phytoplankton community. They are abundant in the sunlit upper layer of the world's oceans, often forming vast...

Scientists from the United States and Canada have announced plans to embark on a joint expedition to map the Arctic seafloor this summer.The expedition, which was announced via a July 26 press release, is set to begin today (August 2) and will run through September 6. The five-week mission marks the third straight year that the two North American nations have collaborated to study the Arctic seafloor and the continental shelf.According to the press release, one main focus of the expedition is...

Underwater canyons have long been considered important habitats for marine life, but until recently, only canyons on continental margins had been intensively studied. Researchers from Hawaii Pacific University (HPU) and the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) have now conducted the first extensive study of canyons in the oceanic Hawaiian Archipelago and found that these submarine canyons support especially abundant and unique communities of megafauna (large animals such as fish, shrimp,...

Reductions in the flow of the Apalachicola River have far-reaching effects that could prove detrimental to grouper and other reef fish populations in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, according to a new Florida State University study that may provide new ammunition for states engaged in a nearly two-decade water war.The Florida State researchers found that in years with low river flow, the concentration of phytoplankton -- the microscopic plant-like organisms that feed into the food chain --...

A U.N. deadline on May 13th over maritime boundaries will attempt to solve disputes over the seabed from the South China Sea to the North Pole, Reuters reported.A U.N. Commission that aims to set limits for national rights to everything from oil and gas to life on the ocean floor is asking most coastal states to define their continental shelves (areas of shallower water offshore) by Wednesday.Harald Brekke, a Norwegian official who is a vice-chair of the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the...

Norway agreed to limits on its northern seabed on Wednesday, becoming the first Arctic state to establish such territorial boundaries. The move is part of a regional territorial shuffle driven in part by the potential of finding gas and oil.Norway's newly defined continental shelf, which stops short of the North Pole, covers 90,740 sq miles, roughly three-quarters the size of mainland Norway, said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.  To the north, the shelf ends 341.8 miles from the Pole...